Allegations of doping in greyhound racing industry

Updated
November 09, 2012 23:39:00

A senior vet who has worked in greyhound racing for decades says performance enhancing drugs are widely used but the industry says there is no credible evidence dogs are being doped or that races are being fixed.

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: A senior vet who has worked in greyhound racing for decades says performance enhancing drugs are widely used.

But the industry says there's no credible evidence that dogs are being doped and races fixed.

Also for the first time the industry has revealed that thousands of greyhounds are euthanized every year, mostly because they show no potential on the racetrack.

Matthew Carney and Timothy McDonald with this special report.

OFFICIAL: Race please

TRAINER: Race 3.

OFFICIAL 2: How are you?

TRAINER 2: Good thank you.

MATTHEW CARNEY: It is race day at Wentworth Park in Sydney. Before the greyhounds hit the track, a vet checks them over and the chief steward confirms their identities and weighs them in.

Security is tight to make sure none of the dogs can be tampered with or doped.

Greyhounds is a sport for battlers and tonight is a big night, with $75,000 in prize money up for grabs.

RACE CALLER: Racing.

PUNTER: It is exciting and it is quick. It is over in no time and then the next race is on. You can lose your money quicker (laughs).

PUNTER 2: There is not many places left in this town where a working man can come for a couple of dollars with his family and have a good night. This is important for a city like Sydney.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Allegations of race fixing and doping have plagued the industry in the past but the sport's governing body says it is a level playing field now.

At the end of every race, the winner is swabbed and its urine tested for drugs.

CLINT BENTLEY, CHIEF STEWARD, GREYHOUND RACING NSW: The last financial year we took somewhere in the order of about 3,000 samples and we had 54 that were positive.

MATTHEW CARNEY: What drugs were they?

CLINT BENTLEY: Seventy-five per cent were of therapeutic nature.

MATTHEW CARNEY: But there is a new drug, a performance enhancer that is difficult to detect and some say is in widespread use.

It is EPO, the same drug that's shaken the cycling world and had Lance Armstrong stripped of seven Tour de France wins.

TED HUMPHRIES, ROSSMORE VETERINARY CENTRE: There seem to be a lot of illegal supply available. Most of it is channelled through human sources to the racing circles.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Ted Humphries was the on track vet at Wentworth Park. He's worked with greyhounds for 42 years. Lately he's been noticing dogs coming into his clinic with extremely high red blood cell counts. That carries more oxygen to the muscles and makes them go faster.

TED HUMPHRIES: It is a very difficult job to get greyhounds up to that perfect blood count and EPO's is a real help and you can actually boost performance as it takes a bit over the top.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Ted Humphries says it is easy for trainers to hide EPO use. They can give it to their dogs several days before a race.

Come race day and testing, the drug has gone but the red blood cells remain up.

TED HUMPHRIES: They do a lot of swabs but there is never any blood taken from greyhounds. They empower to do it but I can't recall ever taking a blood sample.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So you can't detect it through urine?

TED HUMPHRIES: No, not normally.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Greyhound Racing NSW disputes this and says urine testing does pick up EPO usage. They also say they have a program for out of race testing.

BRENT HOGAN, CEO, GREYHOUND RACING NSW: We have been testing for EPO in greyhound urine samples for some time over the last two years. We have done 400 specific tests for EPO and in that time haven't come across a positive. That is the same Australia wide. No State to date has found EPO in a sample.

MATTHEW CARNEY: But the ABC spoke to one trainer who wanted to remain unidentified who said EPO was in circulation and they had witnessed other trainers injecting the drug into their dogs.

BRENT HOGAN: We don't have any credible intelligence which would support the assertion that EPO use is a significant issue in greyhound racing. So in the absence of that intelligence, we're comfortable with our current level of testing, we'll continue with that testing, that will continue to be random.

MATTHEW CARNEY: At the back of Ted Humphries's clinic, another industry secret is revealed.

This dog is just two years old and the E marked on its head means it will be euthanised, killed because it didn't run fast enough.

TED HUMPHRIES: He was just too slow to be competitive. Two seconds slower than he needs to be which makes him about 100m behind the rest. Some are like that. They just haven't got the athletic ability.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Some are put down because they have been injured on the track but most are killed because they show no racing potential or are past their prime on the track. For the first time, the industry has put a figure on the number of greyhounds euthanised each year and it is big.

BRENT HOGAN: We believe at present it is around 3,000 greyhounds a year that are euthanised. We understand that that number is a number which is too high. We have set about putting in place a number of actions which will bring that number down to a level which is more acceptable.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Ted Humphries says the figure is probably much higher. He puts down about 500 a year just at this clinic.

The constant need to euthanise weighs heavily on him.

He says here at least they can have a humane death but left in the hands of some owners, dogs can suffer a cruel fate.

TED HUMPHRIES: They do it inhumanely. They shoot them or hammer them or throw them off bridges. I knew one particular person who would hang them.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So they'd hammer them, what do you mean, literally put a hammer on their head?

TED HUMPHRIES: Yes, bash them with a hammer.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The industry says it is improving the situation by supporting a growing adoption program for discarded greyhounds and training the dogs that do race as family pets.

Matthew Carney, Lateline.

And Timothy McDonald's full report on the greyhound racing industry can be heard on Radio National's Background Briefing this Sunday morning.